This copy is for your personal non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies of Toronto Star content for distribution to colleagues, clients or customers, or inquire about permissions/licensing, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com

Maple Leafs fans watching Victor Hedman play Tuesday against Toronto weren’t just watching one of the best young defencemen in the NHL.

They were seeing someone primed to be a leading candidate for his first Norris Trophy.

Hedman has led the Tampa Bay Lightning to three straight playoffs, emerging as arguably the best defenceman in the post-season the past two years.

He has risen dramatically to elite status, a 25-year-old man-mountain of a blue-liner. Hedman has 232 points, a plus-30 rating and has played an average of 22-plus minutes in 475 regular-season games since being drafted second overall by the Lightning in 2009.

“We had some tough years in my first years here. I think we made the playoffs once in my first four years, but we’ve been in there the last three years and we’ve had good runs the last two years,” Hedman said Tuesday morning, before playing the Leafs at Air Canada Centre.

Article Continued Below

“The playoffs definitely help you as a player, and I know it sounds like a cliché but you have to go through a playoffs to improve as a player. They help you and they help your team, and you want to be part of that for sure.”

Hedman’s playoff performances have been just as impressive: he’s amassed 37 points in 65 career playoff games, is a plus-11 over that span, and is over 54 per cent in Corsi’s SAT percentage, which measures puck possession (anything more than 50 per cent is considered optimal). He consistently leads his team in minutes and dominates possession, at even strength and on special teams.

Hedman finished seventh in Norris voting last season, with Drew Doughty (Kings) winning for the first time in his career, followed by Erik Karlsson (Senators) and Brent Burns (Sharks). Kris Letang (Penguins) was fourth in the voting, which then turned to youth with Roman Josi (Predators) and John Klingberg (Stars) just ahead of Hedman.

“It’s up to him,” teammate Brian Boyle said when asked where Hedman can rate among the NHL’s elite defencemen. “He’s unique, and I’ve played with some great defencemen but he’s in his own class. His size, speed, he’s so big, and he covers so much ice. And the bigger the game, the bigger he plays.”

Over the summer, Hedman signed an eight-year contract for $7.875 million (U.S.) a season, an important deal for Tampa, which also inked Steven Stamkos and Nikita Kucherov after their Stanley Cup final run last year.

The franchise’s ability to manage the salary cap and assemble a tremendous group of young but experienced core players led to ESPN naming the Lightning the best franchise in all of sports. The chance to maintain a Stanley Cup-quality roster for the next several seasons was not lost on Hedman and the others who re-signed.

“That speaks right around our room,” Hedman said. “We’re a tight group. Guys know what we have here. We play for each other, and we want to play with each other. Everyone wants to be part of this.”

More from the Toronto Star & Partners

LOADING

Copyright owned or licensed by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or distribution of this content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited and/or its licensors. To order copies of Toronto Star articles, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com